Girardi ejected for arguing interference call

BALTIMORE -- Yankees manager Joe Girardi was ejected by home-plate umpire Gerry Davis in the seventh inning of Wednesday's 5-3 loss to the Orioles after arguing a play at first base in which Stephen Drew was ruled to have run out of the baseline.

Facing Chris Tillman with two outs and no one on, Drew tapped a slow roller up the first-base line. Catcher Nick Hundley fielded the ball and threw wildly out of the reach of first baseman Steve Pearce, with Drew heading to second base as the ball trickled into right field.

But Davis ruled interference on the play, calling Drew out -- a play that is not eligible for video review -- and ending the half-inning. Girardi came out to argue, returned to the dugout and then returned again, at which time Davis tossed him.

"Gerry was wrong," Girardi said. "Gerry got fooled; the catcher was on the right side of the line, the first baseman was on the left side of the line, and he said the runner was outside the line. Well, the runner was not outside the line.

"But it appeared, it looked funny, because it looked like he had to throw around him because the first baseman and the catcher were not on the same side. So he told me to go check, so I went and checked. And I came back, I was right, and I let him know."

The play occurred with the Yankees clinging to a 2-1 lead; Baltimore claimed the lead with four runs in the eighth off Yankees relievers Dellin Betances and Shawn Kelley, a sequence that Girardi had to watch from the clubhouse.

"I can't tell you that that's going to make a difference, but it's a runner and maybe we score a couple of extra runs and it's a different game," Girardi said.

Drew said that he had not looked at a replay, but that he thought he was running inside the baseline.